Even today day still we don't know exactly where lightning strikes come from and how they are created. This documentary focuses on the latest lightning and thunderstorm research, using the cutting-edge digital video technology. It solves the mystery of ball-lightning and explores in detail the anatomy of a lightning strike, as well as investigating the phenomena of sprites and lightning bolts that explode in the depths of space.

The Voynich Code - The World's Most Mysterious Manuscript

It is the world's most mysterious manuscript. A book, written by an unknown author, illustrated with pictures that are as bizarre as they are puzzling - and written in a language that even the best cryptographers have been unable to decode. No wonder then, that this script even has a part in Dan Brown's latest bestseller, «The Lost Symbol». The Voynich Manuscript has captivated academics and occultists in equal measure since its discovery 100 years ago. The decoders of the Japanese Purple Code, physicists with high-performance modern computers and polymath historians have all tried their luck. But to date nobody has been able to decipher the book's contents. «The Voynich Mystery» follows a completely new lead in the hunt for the author's identity and uncovers the secret of the mysterious manuscript using the methods of materials science. To the present day many historians believe the manuscript to be a fake, allegedly circulated by the New York antique book dealer, Wilfrid Voynich, in 1912 so that he could offer it to wealthy manuscript collectors. Voynich did not, however, succeed in selling the mysterious manuscript to a collector during his lifetime. After his death, it eventually found its way into the collection of the University of Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The manuscript's age, origin and contents remained unknown. For almost a century, the numerous illustrations in particular have given rise to the most adventurous speculation and astounding theories. The secret lettering itself is also still a source of great mystery. But now a new investigative approach has shed new light into the maze of conflicting theories and ideas. At the home of the Voynich Manuscript, the University of Yale, the mysterious text has been looked at again using the methods of material science.

Limits of Light

We recognize our world primarily through the sense of vision, yet the light we use to see by is only a tiny fraction of the electro- magnetic spectrum that surrounds us and impacts on our lives. From X-rays to microwaves, from ultraviolet to infrared, we explore the world of colour. We find out what colour really is, how our colour vision works, and we explore insects that can see into the ultraviolet, snakes that sense invisible infrared radiation and birds whose colour vision is far more sensitive than ours. Following the multiple award-winning «Limits of Perception» and «Time Limits», this is the third part of the trilogy that explores beyond the limits of our everyday perceptions.

Nature Tech - How Engineers Are Inspired by Nature's Top Designs

Why are blossoms never dirty and can we also make our cars that way? Why can geckos walk on the ceiling and can we use their tricks to create better adhesives? Why is the spider's web tougher than steel? Exciting new developments in computer technology, chemistry and physics are now enabling us to understand Nature's designs better than ever before. Scientists are not simply trying to copy nature - they are taking hints, extracting principles and applying winning designs of evolution in a new, human context.

O-Two - The Molecule that Made Our World

Using latest CGI combined with live-action reconstructions, this film follows the journey of a molecule of oxygen, an adventure that takes place over a span of thousands of millions of years. The story begins with the photosynthesis of a bacteria - and in doing so it produces the molecule of oxygen gas. The way of the oxygen unfolds and at times it is torn apart and becomes part of other molecules. It is involved in the conflagrations that accompanied the death of the dinosaurs after the great asteroid impact, then travels through a human body to combine with haemoglobin in the blood and to take part in chemical reactions in individual cells. For a while the oxygen even spends some time as ozone, protecting earth from deadly radiation but then connects to a carbon dioxide molecule to help warming earth and bring about unknown consequences of climate change. Following this fascinating story, the film explores key moments in the history of earth and science in an unusual and visual way. «O-Two» is an intriguing and ambitious journey through biology, chemistry and physics.

Azores High and Iceland Low - Europe under Pressure

Late June in the Alps: A storm is coming up. Within minutes, the temperature drops below zero degrees Celsius, snowfall endangers both animals and humans on their way up to the mountains. What's behind such a dramatic change of weather within such short time? Will there be more of these phenomenons?

The starting point of it all is - literally - somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, where the Azores High meets the Iceland Low. Meteorologist Andreas Jäger sets out on a three-day trip to document the roots and consequences of the phenomenon: Starting at the Azores, he continues through the Rhone valley, the Gulf of Genoa while finishing his explorations in the heart of the Alps.

Limits of Perception

This is a journey form the smallest manmade hole - by removing just one single atom - to the edge of the universe. Man has finally succeeded in making the ancient dream of Greek philosophers come true - to «see» an atom. In another direction we also seem to have unlimited sight: the «Hubble Telescope» grants us a glimpse of the remotest galaxies. This documentary assesses the limits of human perception, taking us on a journey through time from the quasars, millions of light-years away from earth, via the wonders of our populated world to the depths of human genotype and the structure of a single atom. «Limits of Perception» promises a filmic journey of exploration from micro- into macrocosm.

Time Limits

We perceive time in terms of seconds - the length of a heartbeat. We can't even imagine events that unfold over several days and years or be aware of elementary particles that flash into existence for less than a billionth of a second without high-tech camera equipment and exceptional filming techniques. «Time Limits» uses a combination of dramatic computer animation, amazing real time images and the latest scientific advances to give a totally new view of our world and our universe. Specially developed motion-control time-lapse photography will bring to life the slow motion world of plants and the beautiful play of day and night. As the journey continues we experience shorter timescales to find elements that exist for less than a millionth of a second diving into a world of its own. Experience events in a completely new visual way and join the team that made «Limits of Perception» such a success on a fascinating journey to the limits of time.